Excessive sympathetic cardiovascular reactivity to stressful tasks is a risk factor for the development of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Many populations with a greater risk for CVD instead demonstrate blunted cardiovascular reactivity to stressful tasks. The motivational intensity theory identifies how motivation and effort influence sympathetic reactivity. Blunted reactivity may be a potential index of motivational dysregulation, which leads to poor behavioral decisions such as excess smoking or alcohol use, in turn increasing the risk for CVD. The current study sought to demonstrate how inhibited effort due to poor ability feedback with a low-contingency reward could directly increase the risk for CVD through perseverative cognition and impaired recovery. Participants (N = 89) were given either poor or good feedback on a working memory task that was purported to be related to another related working memory task. Participants were then informed that they could secure a low- or high-contingency reward opportunity by meeting a performance standard. EKG, impedance cardiography, blood pressure, and pupillometry were recorded throughout. Pre-ejection period reactivity and self-reported effort were greatest in participants given good feedback with a high-contingency reward and poor feedback with a low-contingency reward. Greater effort and sympathetic reactivity support previous findings linking these two measures. The results also suggest evaluating both internal and external rewards is important when examining motivation.

<p>We have made a qualitative study where we have chosen to interview a number of respondents consisting of ophthalmologists, eye nurses and patients. The purpose of the study was to examine employees' perceptions of patient-related status and treatment and quality, and meaningful participation in the work. The conducted interviews, we then sat in relation to how patients experienced the visit to the eye clinic and their perception of accessibility and hospitality. The result is then compared against the policy of the Title use of internally and we have also tried to explain what is happening with the help of various theorists. Theorist that we made use of is Maslow, Foucault, Deming (TQM) and Herzberg. By applying these theories, we have tried to explain various phenomena that have emerged during the study and why they occur and possibly what you can do about them if there is a need for it. We have used Maslows pyramid of needs, Foucault's power concept, Herzberg motivation theories and TQM Deming with 14 points. The investigation has shown a result that partially fulfilled their expectations and we managed to get answers to our fundamental questions, which reads:</p><p>How do employees perceive their own status and its own response? Employees feel they have a good response and a relatively good availability but can be improved, especially in terms of availability when they feel they would need more time for some patients who have a greater need for help. It also differ depending on whether they are ophthalmologists or eye nurses.</p><p>How does the employee consider the quality and meaning at work and their participation in the work? People look at quality as an important moment in the hospitality and the outcome of patient visits and the meaning of the work feel worthwhile when they help people to improve the daily life, current participation in the work, it is a little different depending on the more specific tasks, the respondents have, where these differ about. Quality is also seen as the treatment they give is the right treatment and that the quality of reading is good.</p><p>How patients perceive the quality of the meeting with the nursing staff? Patients feel that they receive a good quality of care and usually a good reception where the staff are nice and try to take the time to help patients with problems. Some patients note that it feels like that caregivers are sometimes stressed and does not care about the patients when they are lagging behind with patient visits and patients want a declaration that they are late but that they should have come in as soon as possible. It also seems to be some communication problems as they sometimes do not know what to do with patients in therapy, therefore, that they are very ill-informed in the patient case and sometimes what the eye doctor prescribed and why he prescribed this. Reliability may be seen as good, but the study should not be used for generalization when the proportion of patients may be considered too small. The validity of the study should be good because we reflect on the ethical in relation to data collection and thinking about how we should solve them in a good way.</p> / <p>Vi har gjort en kvalitativ studie där vi har valt att intervjua ett antal respondenter bestående av ögonläkare, ögonsjuksköterskor samt patienter. Syftet med studien var att undersöka medarbetarnas uppfattning av patientrelaterad tillgänglighet och bemötande samt kvalité, mening och delaktighet i arbetet. De genomförda intervjuerna har vi sedan satt i relation till hur patienter upplevt besöket vid ögonmottagningen och deras uppfattning av tillgängligheten och bemötandet. Resultatet har sedan jämförts mot de policydokument som avdelningen använder sig av internt och vi har även försökt att förklara vad som sker med hjälp av olika teoretiker. Teoretikerna som vi använt oss av är Maslow, Foucault, Deming (TQM) och Herzberg. Genom att applicera dessa teoretikers teorier har vi försökt att förklara olika fenomen som framkommit under studien och varför dessa uppstår samt eventuellt vad man kan göra åt dessa om det finns behov av det. Vi har använt Maslows behovspyramid, Foucaults maktbegrepp, Herzbergs motivationsteorier och TQM med Demings 14 punkter. Undersökningen har visat ett resultat som delvis motsvarat förväntningarna och vi lyckades att få svar på våra grundläggande frågor, som lyder: Hur upplever medarbetare sin egen tillgänglighet och sitt eget bemötande? Medarbetarna har ett relativt bra bemötande och tillgänglighet som dock kan förbättras, framförallt när det gäller tillgänglighet då de anser att de skulle behöva mer tid för en del patienter som har ett större behov av hjälp. Det skiljer sig också åt beroende på om de är ögonläkare eller ögonsjuksköterskor. Hur ser medarbetaren på kvalitet och mening i arbetet samt sin delaktighet i arbetsprocessen? Medarbetarna ser på kvalitet som ett viktigt moment i bemötandet och resultatet av patientbesöken och meningen med arbetet känns meningsfullt då de hjälper människor till en bättre vardag, gällande delaktighet i arbetsprocessen, är det lite olika beroende på de mer bestämda arbetsuppgifter respondenterna har, då dessa skiljer sig åt. Kvalitet ses ju också som att den behandling de ger är rätt behandling och att kvaliteten på behandlingen är bra. Hur upplever patienter kvaliteten i mötet med vårdpersonalen? Patienterna upplever att de får en bra kvalitet på vården och oftast ett bra bemötande där personalen är trevlig och försöker ta sig tid att hjälpa patienterna med problemen. Vissa patienter påpekar att det känns som att vårdpersonalen ibland är stressade och inte bryr sig om patienterna när de ligger efter med patientbesöken och patienterna vill ha en förklaring till att de är försenade men att de ska få komma in så fort det går. Det verkar också finnas en del kommunikationsproblem då de ibland inte vet vad som ska göras med patienterna när det gäller behandling, alltså att de är dåligt insatta i patientärendet och ibland vad ögonläkaren ordinerat och varför denne ordinerat detta. Tillförlitligheten får ses som god men studien skall inte användas för generalisering då andelen tillfrågade patienter får anses vara för liten. Giltigheten för undersökningen bör vara bra då vi har reflekterat över de etiska i samband med datainsamlingen och funderat på hur vi skulle lösa dessa på ett så bra sätt som möjligt.</p>

Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

Thesis (M.A. (Human Movement Science))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

Populationer av öring består av både migrerande och stationära individer, och det tycks vara både genetiska och miljömässiga faktorer som påverkar en individs beslut att vandra eller ej. Syftet med denna studie var att testa vilken effekt tillgång på föda har på tillväxt och smoltifieringsprocess hos öring (Salmo trutta). Min hypotes var att öring med hög tillförsel av mat växer bättre och smoltifieras därmed inte till samma grad som öring med låg tillförsel av mat. Som en konsekvens av skillnader i mattillgång förväntades att ATPas-aktiviteten, vilken indikerar smoltstatus, var lägre vid god tillförsel av mat än vid låg tillförsel. Experimentet utfördes från november 2003 till april 2004 vid fiskeodlingen i Brattfors, Värmland, där 2+ Klarälvsöringar utsattes för tre olika födonivåer, med fyra replikat av varje födonivå. Var 4-5 vecka fångades fisken för att vägas och mätas och slutligen togs biopsi på öringens gälar för en analys av Na+,K+ -ATPas aktivitet. I slutet av experimentet klassificerades fiskarna som parr eller smolt. Parr hade en signifikant lägre Na+, K+ -ATPas aktivitet än smolt i de tre olika födonivåerna. Na+, K+ -ATPas aktiviteten visade dock ingen signifikant skillnad mellan födonivåerna. Parr hade ökat sin vikt och längd mest i samtliga födonivåer och störst skillnad var det i den lägsta födonivån, parr hade ökat i genomsnitt 17 g och 3,5 mm mer än smolt. Av de två högsta födonivåerna var andelen klassificerade som smolt 37 % och vid den lägsta födonivån var andelen smolt 76 %. / Populations of brown trout consist of both migratory and resident individuals, and it is likely that both genetic and environmental factors influence the decision to migrate. The purpose of this study was to test the effect of food availability on growth and the smolting process in brown trout (Salmo trutta). My hypothesis was that brown trout subjected to a high food supply grows better and smoltifies to a lesser degree than brown trout subjected to a low food supply. As a consequence of differences in food supply I expected that ATPase-activity, which indicates smoltification status, would be lower with a high food supply than with a low supply. The experiment was run from November 2003 until April 2004 in a fish hatchery in Brattfors, Värmland, where 2+ brown trout from the river Klarälven were exposed to three food levels, each replicated four times. Every 4-5 weeks the fish were weighed and measured and a biopsy was taken from the gills for analysis of Na+, K+ -ATPase activity at the end of the experiment. At the end of the experiment the fish were classified as parr or smolt. Parr had a significantly lower Na+, K+ -ATPase activity than smolt for the three different food treatments. Na+, K+ -ATPase activity did not differ significantly between food levels. Parr grew faster (both weight and length) than smolt at all food levels, and the largest difference between parr and smolt was observed at the lowest food level, where parr increased on average 17 g and 3,5 mm more than smolt. At the two highest food levels the proportion classified as smolt was 37 % and at the lowest foodlevel the proportion of smolt was 76 %.

We have made a qualitative study where we have chosen to interview a number of respondents consisting of ophthalmologists, eye nurses and patients. The purpose of the study was to examine employees' perceptions of patient-related status and treatment and quality, and meaningful participation in the work. The conducted interviews, we then sat in relation to how patients experienced the visit to the eye clinic and their perception of accessibility and hospitality. The result is then compared against the policy of the Title use of internally and we have also tried to explain what is happening with the help of various theorists. Theorist that we made use of is Maslow, Foucault, Deming (TQM) and Herzberg. By applying these theories, we have tried to explain various phenomena that have emerged during the study and why they occur and possibly what you can do about them if there is a need for it. We have used Maslows pyramid of needs, Foucault's power concept, Herzberg motivation theories and TQM Deming with 14 points. The investigation has shown a result that partially fulfilled their expectations and we managed to get answers to our fundamental questions, which reads: How do employees perceive their own status and its own response? Employees feel they have a good response and a relatively good availability but can be improved, especially in terms of availability when they feel they would need more time for some patients who have a greater need for help. It also differ depending on whether they are ophthalmologists or eye nurses. How does the employee consider the quality and meaning at work and their participation in the work? People look at quality as an important moment in the hospitality and the outcome of patient visits and the meaning of the work feel worthwhile when they help people to improve the daily life, current participation in the work, it is a little different depending on the more specific tasks, the respondents have, where these differ about. Quality is also seen as the treatment they give is the right treatment and that the quality of reading is good. How patients perceive the quality of the meeting with the nursing staff? Patients feel that they receive a good quality of care and usually a good reception where the staff are nice and try to take the time to help patients with problems. Some patients note that it feels like that caregivers are sometimes stressed and does not care about the patients when they are lagging behind with patient visits and patients want a declaration that they are late but that they should have come in as soon as possible. It also seems to be some communication problems as they sometimes do not know what to do with patients in therapy, therefore, that they are very ill-informed in the patient case and sometimes what the eye doctor prescribed and why he prescribed this. Reliability may be seen as good, but the study should not be used for generalization when the proportion of patients may be considered too small. The validity of the study should be good because we reflect on the ethical in relation to data collection and thinking about how we should solve them in a good way. / Vi har gjort en kvalitativ studie där vi har valt att intervjua ett antal respondenter bestående av ögonläkare, ögonsjuksköterskor samt patienter. Syftet med studien var att undersöka medarbetarnas uppfattning av patientrelaterad tillgänglighet och bemötande samt kvalité, mening och delaktighet i arbetet. De genomförda intervjuerna har vi sedan satt i relation till hur patienter upplevt besöket vid ögonmottagningen och deras uppfattning av tillgängligheten och bemötandet. Resultatet har sedan jämförts mot de policydokument som avdelningen använder sig av internt och vi har även försökt att förklara vad som sker med hjälp av olika teoretiker. Teoretikerna som vi använt oss av är Maslow, Foucault, Deming (TQM) och Herzberg. Genom att applicera dessa teoretikers teorier har vi försökt att förklara olika fenomen som framkommit under studien och varför dessa uppstår samt eventuellt vad man kan göra åt dessa om det finns behov av det. Vi har använt Maslows behovspyramid, Foucaults maktbegrepp, Herzbergs motivationsteorier och TQM med Demings 14 punkter. Undersökningen har visat ett resultat som delvis motsvarat förväntningarna och vi lyckades att få svar på våra grundläggande frågor, som lyder: Hur upplever medarbetare sin egen tillgänglighet och sitt eget bemötande? Medarbetarna har ett relativt bra bemötande och tillgänglighet som dock kan förbättras, framförallt när det gäller tillgänglighet då de anser att de skulle behöva mer tid för en del patienter som har ett större behov av hjälp. Det skiljer sig också åt beroende på om de är ögonläkare eller ögonsjuksköterskor. Hur ser medarbetaren på kvalitet och mening i arbetet samt sin delaktighet i arbetsprocessen? Medarbetarna ser på kvalitet som ett viktigt moment i bemötandet och resultatet av patientbesöken och meningen med arbetet känns meningsfullt då de hjälper människor till en bättre vardag, gällande delaktighet i arbetsprocessen, är det lite olika beroende på de mer bestämda arbetsuppgifter respondenterna har, då dessa skiljer sig åt. Kvalitet ses ju också som att den behandling de ger är rätt behandling och att kvaliteten på behandlingen är bra. Hur upplever patienter kvaliteten i mötet med vårdpersonalen? Patienterna upplever att de får en bra kvalitet på vården och oftast ett bra bemötande där personalen är trevlig och försöker ta sig tid att hjälpa patienterna med problemen. Vissa patienter påpekar att det känns som att vårdpersonalen ibland är stressade och inte bryr sig om patienterna när de ligger efter med patientbesöken och patienterna vill ha en förklaring till att de är försenade men att de ska få komma in så fort det går. Det verkar också finnas en del kommunikationsproblem då de ibland inte vet vad som ska göras med patienterna när det gäller behandling, alltså att de är dåligt insatta i patientärendet och ibland vad ögonläkaren ordinerat och varför denne ordinerat detta. Tillförlitligheten får ses som god men studien skall inte användas för generalisering då andelen tillfrågade patienter får anses vara för liten. Giltigheten för undersökningen bör vara bra då vi har reflekterat över de etiska i samband med datainsamlingen och funderat på hur vi skulle lösa dessa på ett så bra sätt som möjligt.

All organisms within a forested system play a role in the biogeochemical cycle, not only within the forest but also within the global community. Soil microorganisms are a vital part of this cycle, as they sequester or make nutrients available for the development of the forest environment. When a disturbance event occurs, changes to the environment occur; however, it is unclear how these changes affect the soils microbial community. This 2-year (2007 and 2008) study was carried out to obtain a preliminary assessment of the microbial community structure and nutrient (nitrogen and phosphorus) availability within lodgepole pine stands of the Boreal Plain ecozone in west-central Alberta. Six stands of different ages were selected to determine the differences between pre and post harvest. Nutrient flux measurements were conducted using plant root simulator (PRS) probes to investigate the changes in nutrient availability. The microbial community structures were determined using two biochemical methods. The first one was a community level physiological profile (CLPP), which provides information concerning the functional characteristics of the microbial communities. Phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analysis provides information about the physiological characteristics of the microbial community. Analysis of the PRS probes results varied for the two nutrients: phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N). Nitrogen availability was determined by examining the fluxes of ammonium and nitrate to the PRS probes. These did not show a strong relationship between the different aged stands during 2007 or 2008. In addition, no statistical difference was shown between the 2007 and 2008 data compared to the LFH or the mineral soil of the stands. Phosphorus, however, did show a potential trend where there was an initial increase of available P after harvest and then a gradual decrease, as the forest stands matured. This was strongly observed within the LFH, while there was a slight increase in the mineral layer. These trends remained consistent over the two-year period showing a gradual decrease in P flux to the PRS probes as a stand aged even in just one year. The microbial communities did not show a strong change after a forest-harvesting event. When examining the functional groups, there was a drastic shift in the LFH layer microbial community over the first sampling season. This change remained the same within the beginning of the second sampling year. This shift occurred in all stands due to an environmental factor, which was suspected to be the increase in moisture during the season. The change in the microbial communities was not observed, however, in the mineral layer of the soil when the functional structure was examined. When the physiological composition of the microbial communities was observed, though, using PLFA, it was apparent that the physiological characteristics of the microbial community had changed in the mineral soil. Furthermore, no physiological change was observed in the microbial communities of the LFH, only a functional change.

The Perkins IV Act was passed in 2006 to promote high school graduation for youth while introducing skills they need to be prepared for in the labor market. Yearly progress reports measure if CTE programs are successful in reducing dropout rates but fall short for a number of reasons. Using state-level data from the National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Consortium (NASDCTEc) website for the 2009-2010 school year, state-level data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Common Core of Data (CCD) database for 2009-2010, and dropout data from the U.S. Department of Education for the 2010-2011 school year to establish causality, my research seeks to address the extent to which Perkins IV funding reduces drop out rates at the state-level.

This thesis is concerned with the development of a new measurement device for the realistic assessment of braking capability of landing airplanes for winter runways. Landing represents one of the most safety-critical phases of aircraft operation. Aircraft runway excursion incidents occur due to the unpredictability of the runway pavement condition. This is especially true during winter time when the runway is often covered by deformable contaminants. Several accidents are discussed that list the deteriorated condition of the runway pavement and the inability to accurately report this condition as the main causes for the excursions. The accuracy of the approaches currently adopted by the airport authorities around the world to monitor the condition of the runway pavement are evaluated. The conventional and current practice of runway condition monitoring is focused on identifying the maximum tire-pavement frictional drag mu value and often neglects the characteristics of actual aircraft brake control system as well as the comprehensive effects coming from various factors such as deformable contaminants on the winter runway. The braking availability tester discussed here is designed to take a different approach for the realistic assessment of braking availability of landing aircrafts. The main idea of this device is to mimic the braking operation of actual aircrafts as closely as possible by incorporating the same brake mechanism and the brake control system used in existing aircrafts. The architecture of the device from the ground-up including the suite of sensors, the structure of the wheel, important actuators, and the real-time brake control system are discussed in detail. More importantly, the operational principles of the braking availability tester (BAT) are outlined which help one understand how the system works together. A new method to quantify the braking availability on the runway using the BAT is explained. The testing and data collection strategy for implementing this technique is also outlined. Additionally, the results from preliminary tests are presented to verify the functionality of the BAT. The results are used to verify that the BAT operates with the brake control system of an aircraft. Finally, experimental data sets from dry and contaminated pavement testing are presented to show the effect of different weather conditions on the operation of the BAT.

This thesis work focuses on designing a survivable IP-core network with the minimal investment of spare capacity. A span-oriented spare capacity allocation (SCA) scheme is proposed to satisfy customers' availability requirements in the end-to-end (E2E) sense. The novelty of the proposed SCA scheme is that it meets the E2E availability requirements despite the lack of knowledge of E2E bandwidth by employing protection rings covering all links in the network. Different ring selection methods are presented and also compared from the aspect of network redundancy and LP feasibility which provide more flexibility to the design. The proposed SCA algorithm further minimizes total cost of spare capacity by incorporating partial protection within the proposed architecture. The simulation results show that it can significantly reduce the spare capacity consumption depending on the availability. The proposed SCA scheme also performs better in terms of redundancy than that of two other dominant methods available these days.